On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess

Sometimes domestic and laboratory goddesses can get tired. I'm not saying that I have any flaws at all, but if I were to have one, it would be that I regularly sacrifice sleep in an effort to eek more science time, family time, and Isis time out of my day. Tonight I fell asleep on my couch writing and, when a colleague called at 10 pm to discuss some science we're throwing down, I swore that I hadn't been asleep and that he hadn't woken me. He rightfully called "bullshit" on me and we had a good laugh, although a very real part of me felt ashamed at having been caught sleeping "on the job." One of the most difficult things about being a domestic and laboratory goddess is the nagging feeling that one must be everything to everyone at every moment. That expectation is, of course, completely unrealistic but it doesn't stop Dr. Isis from trying to cram as much into a day as is humanly possible and still feeling guilty about the stuff that remains on the plate at the end of the day.

Figure 1:  Sometimes Dr. Isis is guilty of cramming things that are far too big into a day that is far too small. 

Dr. Isis has been away for four days collecting some data away from MRU, returned this afternoon to teach a group of eager students, and has a full plate tomorrow.  She's interviewing a student, going to lunch with another prospective student, looking at some data, and meeting with a colleague about a project.  Still, there is one thing that Dr. Isis is refusing to schedule over, in spite of how much she has to accomplish -- weekly seminar.

The grand dame of academic blogging, Female Science Professor, recently wrote a few posts about whether or not seminar should be required for students.  She outlines, in the carefully and detailed style for which she is known, whether seminar should be compulsory and whether students should receive academic credit for their attendance. Dr. FSP, who even the domestic and laboratory worships as the O.G. female academic blogger, concludes that seminar should be required, at least for 1^st and 2^nd year students.  Dr. Isis is not sure she agrees with FSP's conclusion, although she agrees that attending seminar is crucial for one's academic success.  Even if it is required, there are people who will view it as a chore or something that stands in the way of their data collection (and these are the ones who would not attend it were not mandatory) and then there are people who are interested in broadening their knowledge and interacting with other scientists (and these are the ones who would attend seminar anyway).  I don't think it is sufficient to require the former group of people to attend seminar without imparting to them the fundamental importance of these occasions to learn from other scientists outside of the written literature.

So, with that, Dr. Isis wants to say to those who view seminar as a chore or a hindrance to their progress, "Get your ass to seminar." 

When someone tells Dr. Isis that they didn't attend seminar because the topic "didn't relate to what they were interested in," it makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end (and not in the same way that Mr. Isis makes the hair on the back of her neck stand on end).  While Dr. Isis will not argue that one must obtain every seminar in every field of science possible, she does think it is important to explore ideas within one's discipline (for Dr. Isis, that's physiology) that are not necessarily directly apparently applicable to one's current research.  Two years ago Dr. Isis was struggling with how to answer a particular research question.  In her mind, she had tried everything under the sun to test a particular hypothesis.  Then  Dr. Isis attended the Experimental Biology meeting and, by chance, attended a session on GI physiology.  Although Dr. Isis does not work in this particular field, one of the speakers described a novel technique that he had used to study a similar question in the small intestine as I was trying to answer in a vascular bed, and it completely change my approach to the problem.  I don't think you'll find a pearl every time you explore sub-disciplines outside of your field, but I do think it is extremely valuable to see how others are answering questions and testing hypotheses.  So many methods are translational and seminar is a prime opportunity to gain exposure to new ideas without much effort.

As a student, there is no better opportunity to learn to be a professional than at seminar.  It's a great place to watch more senior scientists interact with each other -- to learn how they ask and answer questions.  It's a great place to evaluate the quality of a speaker's presentation and to learn which component you might incorporate into your own presentation style.  Did a speaker present data in a way that was particularly effective?  If so, you might borrow from their technique (like so many of you are borrowing Dr. Isis' superb figure stylings.  For the record, Dr. Isis did not borrow her own general blog topic or banner from some obscure blogger called ScienceWoman, even though she is implying that is the case. I didn't realize there was another blogger over there in addition to Alice Pawley.  I mean, really, who knew?  I call it a a case of convergent evolution and not flattery. So, smoke that, ScienceWoman! And, can't Dr. Isis go one week without having to do battle, yet again?)  Or, did a speaker do something so distracting that you had a hard time following their talk?  Sometimes seeing someone else make a mistake in a presentation, or a presentation style that you feel is ineffective, can prevent you from making the same mistake in yours.  Finally, seminar is a great place to advance yourself.  It is a safer place to learn to ask questions than a meeting with 10,000 attendees and there is often an opportunity to meet with a visiting speaker (and if one wasn't offered and you really want it, you should ask for it).  Not-yet Dr. Isis weaseled her way into a breakfast with a visiting speaker that she was not initially invited to and ended up with a postdoc offer.

Figure 3:  Dr. Isis's lack of shame at being an academic interloper has occasionally landed her some very interesting opportunities.

The point of the story is that seminar is not simply a time in the week where everyone gets together to hear some dude run his mouth about his most recent successes.  It's an opportunity to learn the culture of science, to learn novel ideas, and to interact with professionals in a relatively safe environment.  You might be learning to run the most beautiful gels or to be a brilliant microscopist, but if you're not attending seminar, you're not really learning to be a scientist.